


The Strange Girls - wish upon a book

by Sharinarra



Series: Partial stories and very very infrequently updated W.I.Ps [3]
Category: Addams Family - All Media Types, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Matilda - Roald Dahl
Genre: Alternate Universe, Best Friends, Developing Friendships, Friendship, Gen, Magic of Books
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:41:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22425736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharinarra/pseuds/Sharinarra
Summary: Matilda Wormwood, Luna Lovegood, and Wednesday Addams are three little girls with a shared love of reading, and a shared wish for friends.
Series: Partial stories and very very infrequently updated W.I.Ps [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1508153
Comments: 6
Kudos: 89





	The Strange Girls - wish upon a book

###  The Strange Girls 

There is magic in all sorts of places, in many worlds, if you just know how to look for it. There is magic in the tinkling laughs of water, in the soundless depths of darkness, in the gleam of light striking angles many would consider impossible.  
And there is magic, oh so very much magic, in the pages of a good book.   
A well written story, a cunningly crafted tale, even a logically flowing structured recitation of facts. All have the power to take the mind of their reader on a sweeping journey far beyond the boundaries of their mundane little world. 

If a single book holds so much power… how much more might there be found in places that store them? In libraries of every stripe, from the great universities where the weight of ages presses heavy around to the public new builds bright and fresh with potential.   
In the second hand bookstores whose labyrinthine shelves and passages fill a space far greater than the outer shell of the building would seem to support.   
In the attics of ancestral family homes, where teetering stacks of boxes hold tomes long unread by any but the occasional child, venturing up to the eaves in search of adventure and finding so much more than they had dreamed.

If books congregate in large enough numbers, and are loved and believed in with a fierce will that refuses to bend, there are so very many doorways that can open for the true of heart and clear of mind. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mrs Phelps had been a librarian in the Aylesbury Public Library for almost fourty years, ever since it had first opened when she was but a young woman fresh from high school. As age crept up on her, however, and with her husband passed on and her children all long since grown and left, she looked to downsize her life and find a nice small house a little further out from the bustle of the town. Fate smiled upon her when not only did a lovely little cottage open up in a nice village some eight miles away, but the local council also opened a brand new library there too, and put out an advertisement for an experienced candidate to run it.   
She applied for both that very day, and within a month was icely settled in to her lovely new life, helping the villagers who came in with their enquiries and doing her best to encourage the children with her own love of the wonderful worlds of her books. 

So life went on in that quiet little village, until one day, a most receptive mind walked through the door.   
Little Matilda Wormwood quite proudly informed Mrs Phelps - upon being asked several weeks later - that she was four years and three months old, and that she had finished the entirety of the children’s section, so if it’s not too much to ask, could Mrs Phelps help her find a really good, grown-ups book? One written by someone famous?   
Well. From that day on, Mrs Phelps knew that she had found a truly extraordinary child, and watched over the little girl with a protective compassion that saw Matilda directed to all sorts of classical fiction, and protected her from the notice of any other grown ups in the library who might be more inclined to make a great fuss and noise over the small child reading her way through the works of Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare. 

For Matilda’s part, this time in the library - two hours every weekday afternoon while everybody was away from home - became by far her favourite part of the day, and her little nook hidden away in a corner of the library became her sanctuary. These books were her escape and her world. They were the friends she had never had, and she loved them and the library with the deepest devotions of her heart. 

But she did occasionally wish that she had a real flesh and blood friend to share her love of stories with.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luna Lovegood was a waifish six year old with pale, dirty blonde hair, slightly protruding eyes, and a perpetual air of one whose mind is, to use the muggle colloquial, away with the fairies. Her mother and father both adored her, but it was with the rather distracted love of experimental academics who were far more likely to get swept up in the search for the rare and unknown than to remember the day of their only child’s birth.   
As a result, Luna had been taught to read thoroughly and well at a very young age, but had otherwise mostly been left to her own devices much of the time. It did not take her long, on the days when rain lashed down and her parents were deep into research and experimentation, to discover the vast collections of knowledge that both had brought to their home. A collection she delved into with joyful abandon.

Every friday, her mother would go to Diagon Alley to find yet more tomes to add to that wondrous hoard, and every friday for as long as she could remember, Luna would beg to go with her. Until the day finally came, when Luna was five years old and her father Xenophilius had gone on a long trip to search for one of his strange creatures, that Pandora Lovegood took her baby girl with her to the second hand bookshop that sat on the corner of Diagon and Knockturn Alleys.   
Luna was in heaven, sorting through the stacks beside her mother and pulling out many a scroll and book that caught her eye. 

With the first trip taken and a success, Pandora began to make a habit of allowing Luna to accompany her to the bookshop, knowing in that vague yet loving way that the things she would learn and the rare books she might find would open her daughters mind to many worlds of possibility. With each successive trip, Luna began to explore further and further out from whichever section of the shop Pandora had decided to search this time. By the time a year had come and gone, the Lovegood heiress knew every shortcut, every crawlspace, every crooked path and tiny door. This bookshop, every friday, was her domain, and she knew that she was its mistress in all the ways that truly counted. 

She just wished, sometimes, that she had a friend to share it with. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday’s child is full of woe… or at least, Wednesday Addams had a distinct problem that was causing her quite a lot of delightful vexation. Her problem was that Pugsley had recently gotten an advanced chemistry set and successfully managed - for the first time - to abscond with several of Grandma Frump’s more interesting potions ingredients.   
And he was absolutely refusing to let her play with them. Even worse, he had somehow figured out how to hide from her in a house she could have sworn she knew inside and out. Grumbling, she set out for her current favourite hideaway, where she could best stew in her annoyance and where she would have the privacy necessary to properly plot his painful demise. The attics awaited.

High in the eaves of the ancient Addams family mansion of 001 Cemetery Lane, there is a dark, creaking maze of beams and boxes. To this cramped and dangerous sanctuary, generations of young Addams children have been drawn, time and again. In those boxes lay hid many a treasure for their deeply inventive minds, and in those tiny spaces, the elder siblings and cousins could no longer fit, allowing the younger - so long as they were athletically inclined - to hold sovereignty over the shifting labyrinth.   
To the five year old Wednesday, this was her world, and she ruled supreme. It was the one place in the house that she knew for a certainty that her troublesome and distinctly un-athletic older brother had never, and would never, come to. 

More fool him.

In these eaves lay hidden treasures he would never see, and in one tiny room in particular, which was completely inaccessible save by taking a treacherous route along the beams of the roof, was a treasure trove of incalculable worth. For there, she had found the towering stacks and stuffed rickety shelves of the entire lifes works and knowledge of Great Aunt Calpurnia, the great witch of the family. Smiling ever so slightly, Wednesday slipped down from the beam, and wriggled through the small hatch that marked the only entrance to this, the heart of her domain. 

Surrounded by grimoires and spell tomes, by dark histories and scrolls full of magical experimentation, Wednesday relaxed as much as any Addams could ever truly relax when constantly living on the edge of death, and pulled out a notebook labelled only as ‘Vengeance’.

Really, she mused, Pugsley was just such a boring, useless /boy/ of a sibling. While she would much rather be an only child, sometimes she found that what she really wished for was a sister. Someone who could understand her love of books and magic.

Someone who could help her start a coven.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wishes, it is very well known amongst those who care to examine the truths of magic, have power.   
Wishes made in threes have even more.  
Wishes were made by three little girls, in three seperate worlds, surrounded and connected by books in which each little girl Knew, without a shadow of a doubt, there was true magic. Wishes that held the same root resonance at their core. 

In a hidden nook of a public library, a small door that had not existed before now stood no higher that an adults knee, hidden in the shadows behind the old wingback armchair that served as the throne of a precocious four year old.

In an old and expansive second hand bookshop that sat at the nexus of power that joined two magical streets, a thin aisle that had always before tapered into a point as it connected the corner of the building gave a little shudder, and a tiny sliver of wall pushed the two shelves apart as a small hatch appeared low to the floor.

And in a secret attic room, cramped and beloved, door and hatch appeared above the writing desk, in the only wall space available.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When a daughter of the Addams clan discovers a mystery in her own domain, there is only one thing to be done. 

Wednesday picked up her favourite, razor sharp, athame, climbed up onto Great Aunt Calpurnias writing desk, and opened the little door. Beyond it, she could make out the dusty, slightly battered legs of an old armchair, the bottom of a long row of shelves, and the quiet sounds of faint breathing and the gentle rustling of a page being turned. Creeping through the door, and wedging it open with her shoe, she peered carefully around the edge of the wingback chair. 

Only to find herself looking into the topaz-brown eyes of a little girl with short brown hair and a book almost as big as her in her lap.

Neither girl spoke, or even breathed, for a long moment. 

“Hello” said Matilda Wormwood, in a quiet voice appropriate for the sanctity of her library “if you crawled into a wardrobe or down a rabbit hole in search of adventure, I’m afraid you’ve found a very boring land indeed.” Matilda, it must be said, was a great believer in the truths of books, no matter if they were labelled as fiction or not. After all, she reasoned, the ideas for such improbabilities must come from something, and thus, everything must be true somewhere.

Wednesday lowered her athame, and regarded the fearless, curious looking girl before her, and responded in a voice equally as quiet. “I came through a door that had appeared from nowhere. My name is Wednesday, what’s yours?”

“Matilda. It’s very nice to meet you Wednesday. Do you like to read? May I see your door? It sounds very interesting, like that start of a magical adventure all our own.”

Giving the tiny half-smile that was the most she ever wore, Wednesday nodded and pointedly looked behind the chair at the open door. Taking the hint, Matilda slid off her seat, carefully marking her place in her book and laying it on the chair cushion, before slipping around the opposite side to meet this strange girl with the neat black pigtails and severe black dress beside a door that was smaller even than she was. Smiling excitedly, she knelt and peered through, barely throwing so much as a curious glance at the rune covered knife in Wednesdays hand. After all, she reasoned, she would want to be armed too, when exploring a mysteriously appearing magic door.  
After a moment she looked up. “Its amazing through there. Are all of those books yours? Can you do magic with them like the titles say?”

Wednesday nodded. This was looking like a promising start for her coven. “Yes. I can do all sorts of magic with the knowledge in those books. Or I will, when I’m older and stronger.”

Matilda thought about this for a second, then nodded. That made sense. They were both only little, after all. “Can you teach me?”

“Come through so we can properly talk, and we can learn together.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luna Lovegood stiffened as she walked into the bookshop. Something felt… different. New. Without even waiting for her mother to decide on a section to search through for the day, she moved purposely into the stacks, following that indefinable something that drew her in like a moth to flame. 

For a long moment, she regarded the innocent seeming hatch in a wall that existed where no wall had been before. Then she beamed, and pulled on the heavy iron ring, lifting the wooden boards with a silent ease that could only be magical and which stayed up of its own accord when touched to the wall above. 

Through the opening was revealed a cramped study much like her mothers private one, and within, poring over an old vellum scroll, were two dark haired little girls no older than herself. Regarding them with the long, slow gaze that was her natural manner, Luna silently listened as they debated in hushed whispers over the meaning of a rune on the scroll before them.   
In a natural pause, after having gotten a look at the debated rune in question, she decided to help.  
“Actually, you may both be right.” she cocked her head slightly at the two as they jumped back and the black haired one raised a knife confidently “it would depend on the context of the spell as a whole, but that particular rune is only found on the old veniconnes pictish, and is most often considered to be a mark of identification. Its being used in the middle of what looks like old english, so whether its identifying a target or being used to confirm the casters identity is heavily decided by the rest of the spell.”

The two girls looked at her, then down to the scroll, then back up at her. The one with the knife seemed to reach a conclusion, and put her weapon down. Now that Luna could see it, she realised it had a lot of runes carved into the blade and handle. “Oh, that’s a really interesting athame. Is it ancient ironwood? My mother has one of pictish bronze.”

“It is ironwood, actually, yes. I’m Wednesday and this is Matilda. Who are you? Is that your library through the hatch? We only explored a couple of aisles yesterday, but it seemed to go on a long way.”

“Hello Wednesday and Matilda. I’m Luna Lovegood. Yes to this being my world, but no to it being a library. This is a second hand bookstore. It’s quite cold lying on the floor like this. May I come in?”

“Certainly. You seem to be familiar with magic already, I’m only a little way into my Great Aunt Calpurnia’s collection, and Matilda only started learning yesterday. We’re going to form a coven.”

“It’s going to be the best coven ever.” said the brown haired girl - Matilda - who had been silent until then. “It’ll be the only coven in any of our worlds with members from multiple dimensions. Just think of all the new things we can learn!” 

“That sounds marvellous. I do know a lot of theory on magic already, mother doesn’t really watch which of her books I read, and father is too busy with his trips and paper to ask. I’m too young to go to Hogwarts though, so I don’t have a wand yet and only do accidental magic.” As she said this, Luna had carefully sid herself through the hatch and down onto a clear part of the desk. From this vantage point, she could see a door beside her hatch, and guessed that this was where Matilda had come from, since Wednesday was dressed far more in keeping with the decoration in the study.

“You have a formal magic school in your world?” asked Matilda eagerly. “Tell us everything!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That was how three strange little girls from three separate worlds came together to be the best friends that any of them would ever know.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“If I have to bite my tongue and let father get away with calling me stupid and being a filthy dirty cheat any longer, I’m going to go crazy!”

“You should hex him. I think we might be able to cast one of the spells from Great Aunt Calpurnia’s earlier notebooks if we all work together on it. How many boils do you think would be right?”

“He sounds like he has a nasty infestation of wrackspurts to me. Is there anyway to introduce turnip juice into his diet? It should help clear them out.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Pugsley is being a brat again and I hate him! Luna, how good are you at potions theory? I want to make his stupid experiment melt his hand off.”

“Well, it depends on which ingredients he used as a base. Are there porcupine quills involved?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Luna, why do you look like you were crying recently?”

“It’s… It’s nothing. I have the two of you, I don’t need Ginevra to like me. She can call me loony as much as she likes.”

“Ginevra? Is that the redheaded girl you said lives near you? The one who’s always being pushed away by her older brothers?”

“Yes… Wednesday, why are you pulling your favourite axe out of the trunk?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Authors Note:  
Hi everyone. I hope this little story has entertained you. I’ve got some vague ideas for scenes and snippets from later on in the girls’ lives, especially for matilda and luna’s schooldays, but for now, this is it. Any head cannons or prompts for additional scenes will be gladly accepted and possibly written up and added to a follow up.   
Thanks for reading :)


End file.
